Granbury's Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates

6 Prison

75 chapter six PRISON The shared experience of incarceration affected the Arkansas Post prisoners much like it had the 7th Texas; for those that survived, it served to deepen their loyalty to the Confederacy and to each other. It also culled the ranks, as disease took its toll and some men made the decision to take an oath of allegiance to the United States rather than risk dying in prison. This latter group, though, formed a small percentage of the prisoners as a whole. Among the Arkansas Post garrison, prison actually served to strengthen the Confederate cause and provided a common experience of suffering that these Texans carried with them through the rest of the war. As suggested by J. Tracy Power in Lee’s Miserables and Larry Daniels in Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee, the common suffering of prison brought the survivors closer together and began the process of molding them into first-class fighting men.1 While the 7th Texas fought to save Vicksburg, the Arkansas Post garrison made its way toward Northern prison camps. On the morning of January 12, 1863, the Texans and Arkansans awoke to the reality that they had become prisoners of war. Many of the men had not eaten anything for two days, and Sergeant William Heartsill reported that he had a breakfast made entirely of river water. Finally, in the evening, the Federals transferred Heartsill’s men to the Sam Gatey and issued the Texans “a good supply” of pork and hardtack. After dark the Federals began bringing other prison- Granbury’s Texas Brigade 76 ers aboard, until at last over eight hundred men—a bevy of Arkansans along with Texans from the W. P. Lane Rangers—had boarded the ship.2 The Federals loaded the John J. Roe and the Nebraska in similar fashion. As Captain Samuel Foster walked up the gangplank of the John J. Roe, a sentinel stopped him at bayonet point at the top and demanded his name, rank, company, and regiment. As the Texans boarded the boat, rumors circulated among them that they would be exchanged at Vicksburg.3 While Dunnington’s Arkansans and the W. P. Lane Rangers boarded the Sam Gatey, Deshler’s Texans climbed aboard the Nebraska and Garland’s Texans made their way onto the John J. Roe.4 After they had boarded the Nebraska, the captain of the boat invited the Texas officers to dine with him and the other Union officers aboard while the enlisted men occupied the lower decks. To the chagrin of the Union captain, the officers and men of the Texas regiments dressed alike, making it impossible to distinguish enlisted men from officers, and before the dinner was over the captain began cursing, shouting that he didn’t know all of the men aboard were officers or he wouldn’t have offered to feed them. After this prank, the captain of the Nebraska never again offered to feed the Texas officers.5 All day on January 12 the three boats stood still, completing preparations for the voyage, and several men took the opportunity to escape over the gunwales and into the river. Some made it to safety, but the guards shot a few and the others drowned. Finally, at 1 p.m. on January 14 the lead vessel gave the signal and the three transports started down the Arkansas . After three hours the steamers passed into the White River, and by 9 p.m. they had entered the Mississippi. “And to our surprise,” wrote Sergeant Heartsill, “we head up stream, so the Vicksburg exchange business has ‘played out’ and many are sorely disappointed, for we did not have any idea of being taken North.” Captain Foster wrote, “Now what’s what— Vicksburg is down the river and we are going up the river. All speculation and calculation is guess work, as to where we are going. We are going north and that is about all we do know.”6 A blinding snowstorm met them as they traveled up the Father of Waters. In these deplorable conditions, pneumonia broke out among the soldiers, and soon sick men covered the floor in every room, “two rows of them with their heads toward the center and their feet toward the state room doors.” On January 16 the transports reached Memphis, and anchored opposite 77 prison the city on the Arkansas shore. The next morning the ships remained in...